Tag Archives: woman artist

Art Discussion, New Work

New Art, & Thoughts On Female Friendship & Community

I always look forward to creating a piece for the Midland Area Cultural Awareness Coalition‘s annual Creativity Contest, displayed at one of the galleries teach through, Creative 360. The theme always provides a thought provoking prompt to inspire a piece I may not have come up with otherwise, and this year was no different: Our shared humanity unites us all. In the background of my piece are the words ‘All humans are resilient. All humans are valuable. All humans have a story. All humans are fascinating. All humans are worthy of love’. I chose to depict a scene of joyful female community, titled Sacred.

Growing up, without expounding into detail I was definitely one of those girls that struggled with female friendships. I found a few close friends that I am still close with today, but overall I just felt like I didn’t understand how to fit in at the girls’ table. My roommates in college ended up being a prevalent topic in therapy. Even when I started seriously dating as a young adult and I’d go to couples gatherings with my partner’s friend group, when eventually the bonfire was lit, the sun was setting, and the group started separating into gendered clusters I always hung out with all the boyfriends! This likely did not make me any more popular.

One of my favorite things about getting older, at least in my corner of the world, is the fact that at almost 40 it seems like all those picky little differences that we thought meant we couldn’t enjoy each other’s company when we were younger just don’t matter anymore. I’m unmarried and childfree by choice, and your major life goal is to get married and raise a family? Cool, when are we hanging out next? You enjoy the nightlife 7 days a week and I’m in my PJs by 11 with a book, awesome – let’s grab dinner and catch some live music. I have multiple good friends that are over 70. I have friends that are active in the alternative scene, and friends that read Amish romance novels. I have friends all over the spectrum as far as upbringing, spiritual beliefs, even friends whose parents were born in a different country. Growing up, I felt like relationships were so rigid, and I think they were more so to an extent. However, I also think I mentally built fences without meaning to. I assumed there was no point in building a relationship with certain people because once they got to know me they’d see how different I was from them and not like me anyway. What a waste these assumptions were. Learning rather than fear or defensiveness is such a feeling of freedom.

Dropping a song below from a magnificent band I was lucky enough to see live over the summer that seems at least loosely related.

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New Work

Surviving Winter In MI, Or Unleashing My Inner Bob Ross

I am like a plant. If I don’t stand in the sun every day I wilt. Unfortunately, I also live in Michigan and I am more wimpy about the cold with each year that passes. Incidentally, I have not been outside as much as I should over the last 2 months. I am always a big fan of if you can’t be outside, bring the outside in so I recently started doing something I never thought I would do after university classes … Painting landscapes!

Though I feel most at peace during a walk in the woods, I always shied away from nature paintings because I tend to lose interest creating something that one could easily just look out their window or at a photo to see. But then I remembered Eyvind Earle, who did the breathtaking background illustrations for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. He was able to capture a dreamlike quality in his landscapes that still showed us a world that was comforting and familiar, but that we couldn’t quite access in our waking hours.

Growing up in Midland, MI one of our local landmarks is Dow Gardens, a Japanese style garden that celebrates color and geometry. I chose this place as the subject for my first largescale landscape, replacing the blues and greens with purples, yellow ochres, teal, black, and burgundy. I embellished with abstract patterned upholstery fabric for some of the trees, floral cutouts and lily pads for the foreground, and accented some of the rocks and branches with metallic acrylic.

I actually just finished the above piece this past weekend though I started it before my triptych below. Just as I was starting my landscape, I was contacted by King’s Daughters Assisted Living, also in Midland (I live only a city over now but still work in Midland!), to come up with a piece of art for a blank wall they had that would tie together their newly renovated space. I was excited to not only put my painting brain, but my interior design brain as well, to use for this project. The new upholstery and decor was all in blues and greens, but much of the carpet in this mid-century-modern building was a brilliant fire engine red, and that was staying. I immediately thought of the red bridge at Dow Gardens, and suggested this nature scene as a way to tie together the carpet and the new furnishings. Many of the residents at King’s Daughters lived in Midland for decades, and being surrounded by images of familiar places brings joy and comfort, especially for those struggling with memory.

I’m inspired to capture more locations from my own past as I continue to develop my acrylic painting, a relatively new focus for me. Maybe some architecture will be next!

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Throwback Art

Throwback Chapter 3 : Fashion Victim

Welcome to the next part in my series using the past to delve into why I create what I do… I hope others find this interesting and entertaining, and I hope it helps readers reconnect with their past selves and realize how all of those different “us-es” had a part in creating who we are today, even those versions of us we don’t like to spend too much time with.

Though you wouldn’t know it from my own childhood attire, fashion was always a large part of my artwork and I loved imagining my own clothing designs (Note me designing Barbie clothes in our home office on Windows95. Note also, I was wearing unnecessary glasses with the lenses popped out for fashion far before mid-2000s hipsters existed.) I adored designing extravagant imaginary partywear, but was also awkward and uncomfortable in my own skin. It took me awhile to ever give a thought to actually trying to look cool myself ;). Once I got into upper elementary school, I idolized the girls in Disney channel movies who rode dirt bikes and skateboards and never seemed to be afraid of what other people thought of them. I really just wanted to be a cool tomboy but I had no athletic ability whatsoever, and I did actually care a lot at that time about what other people were thinking about me, so … I wasn’t too sure what to do with that. It didn’t stop me from rocking a soccer uniform at Disney despite the fact I’d never touched a soccer ball in my life.

My parents always encouraged art and creativity, and come to find I created my first “mixed media” project with my mom, using cutouts from scrap fabric for dresses at age 4. As I got older, my designs became a bit more sophisticated and I even began naming the pieces in my collection with such enticing titles as “Wide Country Gown”, among others.

Around 15, I finally got a clue and started developing my own personal style which also filtered its way into my artwork. I got hooked on loud, unique, alternative fashion that had a retro flair, and even became a bit interested in the whole club kid aesthetic though by happenstance of my birth year I kind of missed the whole raver trend. Below on the left is what I imagined it was probably like.

I’ve been told my interest in both fashion and interior design stand out in my work, and as I mentioned in my first throwback post people have always played a central role in my art. The way individuals choose to decorate both themselves and their external environment are central to telling part of the story of who they are.

Over this year, my passion for wearable art has jumped off the page and into reality as I began designing my own upcycled clothing. This was at first dove into as a project to help my art students with disabilities lead their own fashion show, and then for myself as I realized this is something I really enjoy.

This is also the first year I had the confidence to participate in some local modeling projects for art friends, and it was an absolute blast. Expression via how I visually adorn myself has been another way I have used art as a tool for communication over the years as someone who is an unwilling introvert due to social anxiety. People are all living sculptures, for the most part wonderful and fascinating (and yes, also challenging at times), and the ability to use how we visually present ourselves to show who we are to others before even speaking is an intriguing tool.

Like with my other art, with my wearables I hope to inspire, make people smile, and help them feel confident and comfortable in who they are. My pieces are available for purchase via ebay, etsy, and facebook so pick your poison ;). Let me know what types of colors, patterns, or images make you feel the most inspired and powerful!

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